Originally posted at http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/03/02/tabletop-review-one-dol-lar-dungeon-paladins-secluded-citadel-map-pack/

Usually when you purchase an electronic map pack, you get a few tiles or a set room that you get to use one way. If you are lucky, you can mix and match a couple pieces to come up with new rooms, but generally you either get a single large room or building, or you get some smaller generic pieces that work together to make a larger map. If you want to use the components in a manner other than the prescribed offering, you’ll have to a lot of work tweaking the maps using some software or just get creative.

Sometimes something as simple as choosing to not have grid lines or printing the map to black and white instead of color is just too much work. It is frustrating because you know that the publisher had all these graphics laid out in commercial software, and with just a few mouse clicks, they could have provided you with exactly what you wanted.

D20 Cartographer seems to “get it” when it comes to providing map sets. They provide a single map, in this case a Paladin’s Citadel, in multiple formats and styles for only $1. For that dollar you get:

A set of “easy print” PDFs

Black & White with grid
Black & White without a grid
Color with a grid
Color without a grid
A set of .JPG files

Black & White with grid
Black & White without a grid
Color with a grid
Color without a grid
A set of virtual table-top files

100 dpi .JPG files of each floor, with items removed
25 .PNG file objects for use with any maps
MapTools .RPMAP file with objects embedded and vision blocking set up
The Paladin’s Citadel is a large 150′ x 100′ fortification that is part shrine and part barracks. The citadel is three stories tall, with a smaller second floor and an “intimate” third floor private room. The Citadel is fully furnished if you use the higher resolution printable maps and is unfurnished if you use the files designed for virtual table tops. The one specific MapTools file is already furnished and ready to occupy.

The only issue I could find with this particular map set is that every graphic of the exterior of the Citadel is set on what appears to be a desert background. When using a single building, I’d like to be able to place it on the background of my choosing, especially when using MapTools. Since the focus is on the Citadel itself, having the building presented without the background terrain would let me more easily use it with my existing maps. If I had a larger area map I could resize the .JPG file to set my Citadel where I wanted it and then pull out the more detailed version when the players moved to that building. It is a minor issue, and only relevant because D20 Cartographer did such an otherwise thorough job in providing everything a GM might want to use this map pack.

Normally for $1 I’d expect to get a full color map of the Citadel and that would be it. With all of these files, I can print up the map on my printer at home if I need it quick and cheap, full color at the print shop for quality, or use it in my MapTools game. With the extra .JPG and .PNG files I can re-purpose parts of the Citadel in other maps.

Dollar for dollar, the Paladin’s Citadel from D20 Cartographer is one of the best RPG supplements I’ve ever purchased. I can heartily recommend the entire One Dollar Dungeon line.